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GameMastery Guide / Nonplayer Characters / Villains / Villainous Archetypes

Evil Priest

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 91
An evil priest is typically a cleric or adept, although he may have some levels in other classes in keeping with the interests of his patron deity. Evil priests can be of any race or evil alignment. They can operate in one of three basic ways, according to their personality and the status of their religion: a tyrant who rules an area and burns anyone who objects as a heretic, a vizier who manipulates political power and acts as the power behind the throne, or a cultist who commands a subversive congregation from the shadows.

Personality: Not all evil priests are religious fanatics. Some are simply ambitious and unscrupulous. Others may be sadists, megalomaniacs, or psychotics. Just as evil overlords justify their actions by strength, evil priests always have some religious rationale, which might make sense only to them.

Followers: The followers of an evil priest include lower-level clerics, guards, and others of all classes who might be fanatically devoted or simply frightened into obedience. New followers are often recruited with promises of power, wealth, or pleasure, according to the nature of the priest’s deity. Special followers might include an inner circle of acolytes, creatures from other planes, and undead. If the priest is the power behind a throne, he might also have a network of spies, assassins, even an army at his command.

Plans: A tyrant might plan to spread the faith by conquest, with increased wealth and power as pleasant side effects. A vizier could scheme to gain and keep political power, and then set the country on the path to war and the conquest of infidel lands. A cultist might want to destroy all of a region’s forms of authority so his cult can take power or—especially in the case of chaotic cults—summon their patron to wreak havoc and destruction.

Archives of Nethys

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Evil Priest